


Appreciate It

by FifteenDozenTimes



Category: The Boat Show, The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Genre: M/M, Tumblr ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 06:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5195291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FifteenDozenTimes/pseuds/FifteenDozenTimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt "I’d appreciate it if you’d stop correcting me when I’m right."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Appreciate It

“I know you,” Hutch says, too often, usually before he says something absurd or off-base about Duncan. “You don’t like being happy.”

“I love being happy. Who doesn’t love being happy?”

Hutch lifts his eyebrows and just _looks_ at Duncan, like he’s answered his own question, confirmed whatever nonsense Hutch just accused him of. He’s pretty sure he didn’t, and Hutch is just trying to bluff his way out of this by staring until Duncan’s so flustered he just gives in.

Not this time. Hutch finally gives in, with an exasperated sigh.

“Apparently you! Or you wouldn’t be so damned reluctant to act all the time.”

“I’m cautious, not miserable.”

“You’ll let that girl walk out of your life before you do anything about it, Duncan, and it won’t be the first time.”

Ah . That’s what this is.

“I didn’t let you walk out of my life, we’re still friends, I still see you every day, and I’m the one who left.”

Hutch laughs, the pitying laugh he always uses when Duncan brings this up, like Duncan’s the one still grasping at a failed experiment from nearly a decade ago.

“Whatever you say,” he says, and pats Duncan’s shoulder. “Whatever you say.”

*

Rose leaves after lunch on a Sunday, less than twenty-four hours after Duncan proposes pushing the wedding back one more time to accommodate an extension of their current show. It’s a quiet, uneventful leaving; she packs in the morning, they eat sandwiches together in silence, and she tells him she hopes he gets his priorities in order as she walks out the door.

There are three cars in the theater’s parking lot, two presumably for the restaurant next door, and one he knew he’d see. Duncan has his priorities in order just fine, and Hutch’ll certainly confirm that when Duncan tells him what happened.

“You’re a fool, Dunbar,” is what he actually says, when Duncan finishes explaining. “And I told you so.”

There’s a way these things go, so steady Duncan could set his watch by it. Hutch will let him do what he needs, will keep him distracted, singing nonsense songs while Duncan noodles around on the piano, acting out short bits of whatever Duncan manages to scribble on whatever paper is available. Duncan will ask if he can stay with Hutch, just for a few days, just so he doesn’t have to be alone in his house, and Hutch will pretend he doesn’t know what Duncan’s after.

They’ll fuck, tonight, slow and sweet like they never stopped, and the next few nights, and whenever they feel like it for the next few months, and then Duncan will meet someone who makes him feel light, giddy, and he’ll chase that as far away from the terrifying, all-consuming need he has for Hutch as he can.

“You did,” Duncan says, forces a laugh. “Do you ever get tired of being right all the time?”

“Never.”


End file.
